


A Whole New World With You

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alpha Liam, Alpha Louis, Alpha Zayn, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Bonds, Emmie, F/M, Fan Clubs, Feels, Fluff, Head Space, Heats, Interviews, M/M, Mating Marks, Multi, Omega Harry, Omega Niall, Omega OFC, Omega Space, Pack, Paparazzi, Punishment, Romance, Sex (eventually), Shipping, Spanking, Tour, growls, omega marks, protective
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2018-10-22 08:18:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10693140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Emmie is new to the world of second gender hierarchy. This is the story of how her new pack helps her cope, and also gives her all the love and affection she'd missed out on before.





	1. Pilot

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Like A Dream](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9121834) by [ItIsWhatItIs9194](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItIsWhatItIs9194/pseuds/ItIsWhatItIs9194), [Teddy1008](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teddy1008/pseuds/Teddy1008). 



Where was she? That was really the only question Emmie could comprehend at this point. She had others, of course. Why was her sense of smell so much stronger than before? How come people kept calling her ‘Omega’? And, why did she get light headed when some people got too close to her? These were probably all essential inquiries, but the only one Emmie had any handle on was where she was. First step was completed; examine surroundings. She was in a park, a nice park. Green grass and soft soil with a big playground in the middle. Emmie kept toward the tree line, hiding in the shade of an orange brown tree. It was fall here. Wherever she was. Looking at all the reds, greens, and oranges settled the girl. She had always loved when the trees turned colors, she called it starburst season because the turning leaves and sunsets made her think of God eating the candy, which would be why he would color the world in such a way. There was a dirt, running trail lacing inbetween the trees, the dirt turned up from recent runners.

Sunlight caught a piece of metal on the trail. Attracted by the new distraction, Emmie went over and knelt down to pick up what seemed to be a form of currency. That was when she was hit. Not only by a body, but also by a sweet scent. The thick smell quickly curled and settled in her brain like a drug. Emmie found herself floating, somewhere on the edge of reality and a dream. She felt the damp dirt under her cheek and a warm body over the top of her. She hummed, or at least she thought she did. It was hard to tell. Everything was so colorful and vivid. The trees were happy colors, and the world was calm. Or was it? Truth be told, she had a hard time keeping track of anything. This was probably what being high feels like, she mused drunkenly. The warmth that once covered her lifted from her body, and sounds that resembled talking echoed around her. It was hard to tell with the soft buzz filling her head. She’d never felt so content in her life. A pair of hands sat her up, and Emmie stared at the out-of-focus figure. She inhaled, and her mind let go.

“C’mon, you’re doing great. That’s it, up you go,” a voice praised. Emmie blinked, trying to focus, so she could figure out where it was coming from. Things started to fall into focus. She inhaled, starting to get pulled back by the most wonderful smells ever.

“No, no. You gotta stay with me, love,” Liam encouraged, watching the mystery omega struggle to come out of omega space.

Emmie felt as if she had woken up from the best sleep she had ever had. Maybe it had all been a crazy dream. This was quickly disproven by the man kneeling before her. He had warm, brown eyes, and caramel brown hair. Behind him were four other people, but Emmie was still having trouble processing things, so she left that to deal with later. She wasn’t sure she could handle meeting four more people.

“You with us?” he asked, eyes steady and calm.

Emmie sat up shakily. “W-with who?”

The man ignored her question. “How are you feeling? Are you nauseous, hot, dizzy?”

She shook her head. “No, but I, um, my name’s Emmie McAllister, I was at home and then, then I was in a park. I-I don’t live near a park.” Emmie took a deep breath trying to calm herself. “And people kept calling me ‘omega’, but that’s not my name. This is all so weird, and, and I can smell you. I could never smell people before. I didn’t even know that was a thing.”

The man glanced back at his companions, communicating something silently, before turning to her. “Didn’t you ever take health in school?”

“What? Of course, Freshman year.”

“Then they told you all about second gender classifications, right?”

Emmie looked at the man in front of her with a high amount of incredulity. “There’s only one gender category.”

The man mimicked her expression. “You’re kidding me.”

“You’re the one who’s joking around with this second gender stuff. What even is that?”

“So you don’t know about your second gender?” he tried to clarify.

Emmie shrugged. “There’s nothing to know. Whatever you’re talking about doesn’t exist.”

“Okay, so what are you?”

“A girl,” she told him, slightly offended.

The man’s eyes flickered up and down Emmie’s facial expressions. “That’s it?”

The blonde shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, before breaking eye contact. “What else could there be?”

“Look at your left wrist.”

Emmie did so and was astounded. Where pale skin once lay unmarked, a tattooed bracelet took its place. The tattoo mimicked three twisting vines, with small wild flowers dotting about it. The vines were shaded so realistically it was almost surprising to feel smooth skin and not a plant when Emmie rubbed her wrist. The flowers were either a pale pink or a yellow so soft it could almost be mistaken for white. The flowers, upon closer inspection, were six in total. They peeked out shyly from the vines, their soft petals content to be nestled like colorful bells in the green. It was beautiful, but it also wasn’t supposed to be there.

In hindsight, it wasn’t the most intelligent move to try to immediately scrub off the colors. She’d grabbed the end of her shirt and started away, her wrist stinging from the roughness of which she rubbed the material.

“Get off, get off, get off!” The colors stubbornly stayed where they were. Spotting a kitchen, Emmie darted off the couch and to the sink. Putting the water all the way on hot, she pumped soap and got to work. It seemed to be working, as white bubbles marred her view, she could see the colours blurring. It wasn’t until hands intercepted her own, and gently rinsed off the soap that she realized she was crying. The colors were blurred from her tears, not the soap. Nothing was said as the man dried her hands off. Within the silence, echoes of her quiet sobs could be heard. It was mortifying to be so vulnerable. All she wanted to do was curl up in a corner somewhere. Emmie’s tears only came on faster when she realized that she was in a place she didn’t know, with people she didn’t know, and a mysterious tattoo. Her knees felt like weak roots trying to hold a tree up in a windstorm. Gripping her wrist to her chest, she curled in on herself and sat on the floor.

It was quiet for a few moments, before someone shuffled down next to her on the grey tiles. “Are you okay?” 

Looking up, Emmie saw curly hair and green eyes filled with sympathy. She shook her head. “I’ve never had a tattoo before. How- who gave me this?” she whispered, reigning in her tears.

“You really don’t know?”

There were a lot of things Emmie didn’t know.

Seeing her darkening expression, Liam stepped into command. “Harry, Niall, you guys teach her everything she needs to know. Alpha meeting in the study.” 

With that, the pack split. Louis, Liam, and Zayn towards the study to have a chat about the next course of action. Emmie was herded back to the couch and cuddled up between the green eyed boy and the blonde one. She would’ve thought having close contact would be embarrassing, especially after such a scene, but it rather helped her stay grounded and calm.

“I’m Harry, this is Niall.” The curly haired one motioned respectively.

“So you don’t know anything about second gender classification?” Niall asked.

When she shook her head and looked down in embarrassment, eyeing her new tattoo, the boys were quick to comfort her. “Don’t worry, we’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

They were able to cover all of the important physical aspects of being an omega, and explain who and what everyone was, within forty minutes. What omega space was, how to fall into it. How omegas need affection and guidance. How alphas needed to protect and guide. Betas were the middle ground. You were either an alpha, beta, or omega. They also briefly went over scenting, which was still foreign to Emmie, but she rolled with it. During this time, it became easier to relax around the two boys. They were lively and easy to talk to. By the end of the hour Emmie felt as if she’d known them her whole life.

############

“Everything you’ve been suggesting is completely illogical,” Zayn stated bluntly.

“She has nowhere else to go. We’ve already checked the data realm, and she’s completely off the maps. No relatives, DNA matches, or facial recognitions,” Liam pointed out.

Louis considered it thoughtfully. “She is pretty cute.”

Zayn threw the oldest alpha a disbelieving look. “You can’t be serious.”

“Think about it,” Louis said, “Her marking has three strands for the bracelet. You know people with three strands can’t lie to save their lives. She can’t be making this up. Not only that, but light colored flowers represent honesty. She’s being genuine here.”

“I don’t doubt her honesty,” he ran his hand through his hair while sighing. “Just, what about Harry and Niall? We can’t do this if they don’t even like her. What if the three of them don’t get along? It would be a disaster, besides we have a tour coming up, and-”

Liam cut him off, “So you would be okay with it if Harry and Niall liked her?”

“You know that’s not-”

“Would you?”

Zayn rolled his eyes. “Yes, on the off chance that Harry and Niall actually both like her, not just tolerate. They have to enjoy being around her. If that happens then, I’ll agree.”

Harry and Niall, while both omegas, had never really been very open to others of their secondary gender. Neither of them really went into detail about it, but the running theory among the alphas was that they saw firsthand how manipulative some omegas were. Thus, were predisposed to be wary of them. It was also this wariness that kept the pack from accepting Lilly, who was as two faced as they came. They did have some omega friends, and although few, the ones they did have were more than enough.

“We’ve been talking about this for over an hour. Let’s get back and see how the deciding factor has panned out.” On Louis’ suggestion, they headed to the living room, only to be greeted with the sight of three tiny omegas play wrestling on the soft carpet. Play wrestling for omegas, was essentially power cuddling. In comparison, whenever alphas play wrestled it tended to be just short of bloodshed. Most omegas didn’t know this, but for alphas, watching omegas fight for cuddle-dominance was a favourite pastime shared throughout the second gender classification.

The three omegas were all breathless and giggling, as they fought for top dog position. It didn’t escape the alphas’ notice that the boys were extra gentle with Emmie. Making sure not to be too rough, or to overpower her significantly. Emmie, who didn’t seem to have an aggressive bone in her body, used a short opening and was able to flop on top of the two with a proud smile.

“I am now your ruler, as I am the mightiest, and you are peasants-”

Harry was quick to tickle her breathless, causing her to collapse into his chest, her body heavy from too much laughter.

Once she’d caught her breath, Emmie pouted at him. “You ruined my coronation speech.”

Niall took their distraction as weakness and laid over the both of them, turning the wrestling match into a dog pile. “No one rules over Niall Horan!”

“But I was your ruler, I was a wonderful ruler!” Emmie protested, flailing her arms out dramatically. “Or I would have been. I didn’t even get to have my coronation cake.”

“I am my own ruler!”

At Niall’s insistence of this fact, Harry and Emmie ganged up on him and pinned him down until he retracted his statement. Throughout it all, none of the omegas had taken notice of their audience. It was during their heated debate that the alphas stepped into view.

“No, but Niall, if I was your ruler instead of Harry, then I would share my coronation cake with you,” Emmie said.

Niall seemed to be contemplating this as Harry made a comeback. “But I’m taller than Emmie.”

“I’m blonder!”

“That means nothing,” Harry said with mock seriousness.

Emmie returned it in kind. “But we’re both blonde, and blondes have to stick together.”

“I dye my hair,” Niall piped up.

“Ha! I win!” the omega gloated, laughing as Emmie threw her arm over her eyes in a whatever-shall-I-do gesture.

Liam gave Zayn a look, asking for the ok. The alpha, still in a slight shock from Niall and Harry’s easy acceptance of this foreign omega, nodded silently. He had not foreseen this at all. Harry and Niall were laughing with this omega girl who had popped out of nowhere and into their lives. In fact, this was probably the most comfortable he’d seen them around any female omega, ever. Watching Emmie laugh at something Niall had said, Zayn agreed with what Louis had said previously, she was damn cute.

################

“As a new member of this pack there are rules,” Zayn told Emmie, who nodded along attentively. “And there are punishments for not following the rules. As Harry and Niall can attest to, it’s better to just do as you’re told.”

Louis took over when Zayn paused. “The rules are fairly simple. The biggest one is proper communication. Don’t go anywhere outside the house without telling one of us. Tell us if you’re feeling unwell or hungry. This is a big one; no lying, whether by omission or otherwise. Bending the truth counts for this one as well.”

“Be respectful. Quite straightforward, really. Do as you’re told, don’t talk back. No calling names or being mean, and definitely no hitting.” Liam let Emmie process that before continuing. “I know that this is all new to you,” Liam made sure to make eye contact with the omega. “But you have to trust us. From what you’ve said, the culture you were raised in was very different from this one. You’re going to have to rely on us to guide you through the social customs.”

“That being said, when any of us tell you something, you have to go with it. If you have any objections we’ll talk about it privately, but try to avoid making a scene.” Zayn then motioned to Harry and Niall. “As both Harry and Niall know the culture far better than you they will be slightly above you in pack rankings. Normally omegas are the same rank, but they will have the authority to advise and guide you when it comes to social norms and things of the like.”

Emmie nodded, and Louis asked her to reiterate what she was just told. 

“Um, communicate. No lying or anything like that. Be respectful, don’t be mean. Trust you guys to know what to do, and do as I’m told.” She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at the alphas, unsure. “Is that all of them?”

Zayn perked up. “Oh, we forgot a rule: No cursing. Cursing just shows the world that you don’t care about your pack and the image you bring onto them.”

“And that’s it for now, there will be more later,” Louis told her. 

“Now, onto punishments.” Emmie shifted nervously at Liam’s words. “The severity correlates directly with how bad you were. Like, say we told you not to go outside, but you did so anyway. You’d probably get a ten minute time out and then five spanks. But, if you had done the same thing, but lied about going outside, then you’d get another five tacked onto the first five spankings.”

Noticing Emmie’s horrified expression, Niall was quick to comfort her, “Don’t worry, they’re very fair with our punishments.”

“Emmie, we don’t punish our omegas for fun. We do it so you can learn and be safe,” Zayn said, looking earnestly into her blue eyes.

“I know. I-I trust you guys… So, what now?”

“Everyone has chores, here, but there is one spot open,” Louis hinted.

“Can you cook?” Niall asked.

“Yeah! I love cooking.”

That was how Emmie ended up in the kitchen making caesar salad, green beans, and salmon baked in melted butter, with an apple pie for dessert. She’d been given full reign of the kitchen, and the omega had master plans on what dishes she was going to make. The pack seemed quite content to just let her do her thing. It would be nice, not ordering takeout for the third time that week. Zayn sat at the counter, sketching. Well, he was pretending to sketch while watching the omega cook. By the way she moved around the kitchen, it was clear she was no stranger to the art, but adding a new pack member put Zayn’s alpha instincts on edge. So, to ease his worrying, he watched her work. It was almost therapeutic, as Emmie’s movements led into the other smoothly. She looked so serene, almost like the world couldn’t touch her. 

 

Zayn really hoped the world would never touch her. Not this one, at least. Wherever she came from seemed far less aggressive than his own. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side, but she didn’t know anything. Like how to spot a bad alpha, or how omegas should and shouldn’t be treated. Maybe he should ask Harry and Niall to go into fine detail about mannerisms and signs. It might make things safer for her. Logically, Zayn knew that they couldn’t be with her at all times, even though there were three alphas to protect her, and two omegas who both had a stubborn streak in them. What were they thinking? Emmie deserved better than rabid paparazzi and jealous fans. What would they do if-

“Stop.”

Zayn looked at Louis, who had recently sat down next to him at the counter. “Huh?”

“You’re running yourself in circles. You need to take this one step at a time.” Then Louis’ blue eyes traveled to Emmie who was humming to herself, blissfully ignorant. “She needs you to take this one step at a time. I’m not saying this going to be easy, for any of us, but it’s going to be worth it. Did you see Harry and Niall?”

Zayn laughed breezily, feeling his shoulders start to relax. “Yeah, that was something.”

“Exactly, we all have something. We’ll be okay. Besides, from how well we’re all getting on, I’m almost expecting a glow.”

“You know that’s a myth.”

Louis raised his eyebrow. “A scientifically proven myth. Just watch, it’s gonna happen.”

“Yeah, right.”

“You’ve already been wrong once today,” Louis pointed out cheekily, before making his way around the counter.

Zayn pondered his words as he watched Louis peck Emmie on the cheek while stealing a cinnamon covered apple slice. Emmie laughed, but still swiped at him, which the alpha easily dodged. Sighing to himself, Zayn refocused on his art. This was all something he could think about later. 

By the time it was eight, Emmie was tired, but she was having far too much fun play wrestling. Louis had teased her about getting the last slice of pie (Emmie could only eat so much), so in retaliation, Emmie playfully moved towards him, and just like with her fellow omegas, they easily fell into play wrestling. Louis was a lot stronger than either Harry or Niall, though. It felt like whatever advantage the omega got, was one that Louis allowed her. Emmie didn’t mind too much. Honestly, it was just nice to be close with someone. Not to mention, Louis smelled amazing. More often than not, Emmie found herself unintentionally scenting him. She was getting tired, but tried to push on. She hoped this day would never have to end. It had been so long since she’d gotten affection. Actually, the amount she had gotten today was more than everything she’d ever gotten combined. 

Louis had noticed it the moment Emmie’s movements became clumsier. She took longer to react, and the wrestling shifted from pushing and pulling to her trying to get closer to him for body heat. Louis knew this because it had happened multiple times before with both Niall and Harry after long days of interviews and recording. They would still be wired and would get into the game with him, but were quick to fall asleep in his arms. The only difference now, was that Emmie seemed to be fighting it. Having looked up the side effects of touch neglect, they’d come up with a recovery plan for her. The plan included her being in bed by ten every night for at least a couple weeks, but with the way she was going, maybe a bedtime at nine was better.

Luckily, Liam took it upon himself as head alpha to say something. “Emmie, it’s time for you to go to bed.”

“It’s not that late, and I’m having fun.” This may have been a good enough argument for a weaker alpha, but Liam was anything but weak. And, her cute, whimpering yawn at the end of her sentence didn’t help her case, either.

“Liam’s right, love. You’re still recovering from touch neglect, so you need to get more rest than normal,” Louis told her.

Emmie’s eyebrows furrowed together as she pouted cutely. “What’s touch neglect?”

Niall sat up from his position cuddled into Zayn. “Do you remember what Harry and I told you, about how omegas needed affection?” At the nod he received he continued. “The reason you fell into omega space with Harry is because you haven’t been getting enough affection. Going into omega space with the first person you made contact with is just your body’s way of trying to get what it needs. But that’s not all touch neglect does, it can make an omega sick to the point of hospitalization, and if it goes on for too long it could even cause death.”

“Oh.” She looked sadly at Louis, who was still holding her. “It’s bed time?”

“Yeah, where do you want to sleep tonight? We all have a bed that we usually share, but you can sleep in a different bed if you’d like.”

“Can I sleep in your guys’s bed, please?”

Louis smiled, secretly pleased with her choice. “Of course! Come on, let’s get you ready for bed.”

In the end, Emmie had brushed her teeth and changed into some spare shorts and a T-shirt that were laying around. It took her a grand total of thirty seconds before she was passed out in the middle of the giant bed. The bed itself could fit ten people with ease and comfort, so adding someone as small as Emmie was hardly a concern.

“She down?” Zayn asked when Louis joined them back downstairs to watch TV.

“Oh, yeah, she was out. I’m surprised she didn’t fall asleep while brushing her teeth.”

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Harry wondered, glancing towards the side of the house Emmie was in.

Niall quickly added his two cents. “Yeah, because it’s really rare for an omega to drop for another omega.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Liam assured them. “I researched it, and we just have to give her plenty of water and healthy food, along with skin contact and lots of sleep.”

“I think that she’s on a fast track for recovery, what with all the cuddles she got from you two.” Zayn looked to the two omegas questioningly.

Harry shrugged. “She was so scared and nervous.”

“It was hard not to like her once she opened up,” Niall confessed. “We just have good instincts when it comes to omegas.”

“Yeah, she’s good. We can tell.”

“Ah,” Liam raised an eyebrow in amusement. “So you two have been having your own little meetings as well.”

“Of course,” Niall scoffed, as if it were obvious. “Had to make sure we were on the same page with taking her in. We didn’t agree with your decision on whim.”

“To be expected.”

And why would the alphas expect anything else? Harry and Niall were nothing if not thorough with communication and being in sync. Hopefully, Emmie would fall into the same habit as well.


	2. Don't Let Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pack goes shopping, and what happens next is shocking!

Emmie slept through the whole night, not stirring once. Even when her other pack mates joined her. It wasn’t until about nine in the morning, that she started waking up. Her face was pressed into Liam’s side, her arm thrown over his torso. Behind her, Niall had his back against her own. Harry was on Liam’s other side, curled into Louis. Zayn, for his part, was widely stretched out on his side of the bed, taking up the maximum amount of space, but Niall still kept a firm hold on the alpha’s shirt. Everyone was deeply asleep. Getting up quietly, Emmie excitedly made her way downstairs to the kitchen. It was the first official day of them being a pack together. Breakfast had to be good.

The first person to stumble into the kitchen was Liam. The head alpha looked far more awake than what Emmie would have expected, what with how hard he had been sleeping. Quickly fixing him a plate of strawberry crepes, hashbrowns, and avocado toast, she put it in front of his place at the table.

“Thanks, love.” Liam smiled at her, which she returned fully.

Emmie watched him from the corner of her eye. Liam seemed to be enjoying his breakfast, if the contented look on his face was anything to go by. The omega gave a silent sigh in relief. One down, four to go. The next three came down all at once, only a couple minutes after Liam. Emmie repeated the process of making a plate for everyone, and added a pitcher of orange juice to the table with empty glasses. At the sight of food, they seemed to perk up. Thanking Emmie, they dug in, and seemed just as happy with the food as Liam had been. Breakfast was a success, it would seem, because all four of them asked for seconds. 

Having made enough for both her and Zayn, Emmie sat down to eat after placing the alpha’s in the microwave to keep it insulated. 

“Where’s Zayn?” she asked, looking towards the staircase.

Harry responded from where he washing the breakfast dishes. “He likes to sleep in. Best to just leave him to it.”

An hour later, (after Zayn had finally stumbled downstairs and eaten something) they were all preparing to walk out the door and go to the mall. Emmie had nothing but the clothes on her back, so this trip was mostly for her. 

“Okay, do you have everything? You know once we leave we’re not coming back,” Zayn told Emmie, who nodded and smiled up at him brightly.

Louis rolled his eyes playfully. “The reason we’re even going on this trip is to get her things. The most she needs on her is her coat and tracker.” 

Emmie touched the necklace she wore, which was made to look like a snowflake, but actually had a GPS chip in it so the pack could find her if she got lost. Harry and Niall had one too, hidden in different aspects of their attire. While Louis and Zayn began to talk about alpha things (aka safety and unnecessary worries), Emmie skipped over to where Niall and Harry were fawning over a game on Harry’s phone.

When his little penguin missed a jump in his game, the three omegas let out noises of despair. Looking at each other in surprise, they laughed together as the alphas started ushering them into the car. Emmie sat in the very, very back with Niall, Harry and Louis sat in the middle and Zayn and Liam took the front seats. 

Liam pulled out of the driveway before looking through his mirror at their newest addition. “Ok, Emmie, remind me of the rules for while we’re out in public.”

“Always stay by an alpha, no matter what. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t take free things from strangers. Be polite, and say please and thank you. Call you guys ‘alpha’. Be respectful. Do what you tell me to do, and…” she trailed off, trying to remember the last one.

“And have fun!” Niall finished for her. 

The two blondes smiled at eachother. “And have fun,” Emmie added. “Niall?”

“Yeah?”

“Is it okay if I hold your hand when we go out there?” Emmie fiddled with her fingers, feeling slightly self conscious about asking for such a thing. She couldn’t help it, though. It felt as if she was walking into a battle field, what with how little she knew about the culture of this world. 

Harry turned around with pretend hurt look on his face. “Hey, what about me?”

“You’ll hold hands with me, too?”

Niall took her hand into his immediately. “We both will. Don’t worry, it’ll be fun.”

And so the omegas ended up walking through a posh, high end mall, linked together by their hands, with Emmie in the middle. It made her feel a lot better, having Harry and Niall with her to go through this. The mall had a high ceilings and giant windows to let sunlight in. The floor that was made of marble was so clean you could see your reflection in it, and all the stores seemed elegant and expensive. Well dressed people milled around in their high heels and suits. Emmie looked for omegas, anyone with a tattoo on their left wrist, but found it all to mostly be alphas. Liam led them through the mall, seeming to know where he needed to go in the maze of fancy advertising and beautiful people. The first place they went was a clothing store for girls, Niall and Harry left with Liam and Zayn to do some shopping of their own. The general rule of thumb was one alpha per omega, so they split up that way.

The alpha and omega left stood in front of Vanessa’s a cute, female omega boutique with pretty sun dresses and an employee that looked like a model. Emmie peeked up at Louis shyly, meeting his startling blue eyes. “Can I hold your hand?” she whispered, feeling vulnerable without her friends on either side of her.

“Of course, love.” He laced his fingers through hers, watching the way she visibly relaxed once she had a secure grip on him. Looks like they wouldn’t have to worry about her wandering off as they had with Harry in the beginning. Emmie’s male counterparts liked their freedom, and thus pushed the rules while in public from time to time. Going by how Emmie stayed close to Louis’ side, even though they were physically connected, this wouldn’t be the case. 

Eventually, after a few minutes of browsing the store, the omega loosened up and started to examine dresses that she liked without any prompting from Louis. She got stuck on one dress. It was simple and white with a bow on the back. The white material was a kind of lace with flowers in the design, and another white fabric under it so that it wasn’t see through. Touching it softly, she admired the quality. 

“Do you want to try that one on?” Louis asked.

Dark blue eyes looked up at him from under thick, black eyelashes. “Yes, please, alpha.” Louis almost died right there. So sweet, so submissive. 

The alpha got himself together. “Okay.” Quickly picking out her size, he then coaxed her into choosing a few more items to try on before approaching the sales person.

“Hi, could we have a changing room, please?”

“Of course, right this way.” The woman led them over to pink stalls at the side of the store, with soft seats for alphas to wait in. Noticing Emmie’s blatant staring, Trina felt her eyebrow twitch. If one more omega asked her what it was like to have to work for a living, she was going to quit this job and never look back. Instead, she smiled sweetly and asked, “Do you need something, sweetheart?”

“You’re beautiful,” Emmie blurted out. Then, seeming to realize she just said that outloud, the blonde ducked her head and blushed heavily. A quiet “Sorry,” was heard as she huddled closer to Louis’ side in embarrassment. The alpha just smiled in amusement, and let the omega burrow into his torso.

Trina felt her cheeks flush slightly from the genuine compliment. “Thank you, hon, you just made my day. If you need anything just call.” With the first real smile of the morning, Trina unlocked the fitting room door and left the pair to it.

“We will,” the girl’s alpha assured her. 

Today had been slow for customers, as Vanessa’s catered to omegas, and the big days for them to come in were on the weekends when their alphas had time off. Trina amused herself with discreetly watching the alpha and omega interact. 

“Go ahead and try these on, and then come out and show me. I’ll be right here,” the handsome alpha said, sitting down on one of the couches.

“You promise?” Those eyes! Goodness, it was no wonder the girl had gotten such a well off alpha.

“Yes, I promise.” 

Reluctantly, the omega let go of her alpha’s hand, looking back at him for the go ahead when she got to the fitting room door. Receiving a nod, she shuffled in, and the pastel pink door clicked shut. A few minutes later, the girl slipped out and shyly stood in front of her alpha, now dressed in one of the most popular dresses the boutique had in stock. Getting a positive confirmation from the man, the blonde bounced back into the dressing room. The next time she came out she gave a little twirl, and then a curtsey. Clearly whatever the alpha had said to her boosted her confidence levels. 

Eventually, the pair were checking out the items they’d chosen, and leaving them to be shipped over to their home. Just like before, the omega stuck close to her alpha, holding his hand, but she was smiling up at him and they were talking quietly together as Trina rung up their purchases. 

Trina walked them to the entrance, as was customary. “Have a nice day,” she smiled, almost sad to see them go.

The omega surprised her, though, when she hugged her around the waist with one arm. The other still held onto her alpha’s hand. “Thank you, Miss Trina.” For the rest of the morning, Trina smiled every time she thought of the girl.

#########

It was a couple hours later when the pack met up again for lunch. Louis and Emmie carried no bags because the mall had a delivery service. This was odd to Emmie, why would they need such a thing as that? Now, though, she was just thankful she didn’t have to lug around heavy, plastic bags.

“Hey, how was shopping?” Liam asked. 

They were all sitting in a booth in a tiny cafe just a couple blocks from the mall. The head alpha had known it went well but asked anyway, because when Louis and Emmie had walked into the meeting place, they were both laughing about something. 

“It was great!” Emmie exclaimed. “I got a lot of cute dresses. The first shop we went to had a model working there, I think.”

“She wasn’t a model. She was working the cashier, remember?”

“Oh, well, then she was just really pretty.” Emmie shrugged. “How did your shopping go?”

“We played laser tag. I won all four times,” Harry stated, smirking at a put out Niall.

“We were supposed to be a team, though,” Zayn pointed out, exasperated.

“All is fair in love and war.”

Louis laughed. “The same thing happened the last time we went, too. Emmie, if you ever go with us, make sure to watch your back around Harry.”

Harry bumped his shoulder with Emmie’s. “Or, you could join me. We’ll start a revolution together.”

The waiter came then, taking their orders. Conversation fell from laser tag to schedule planning. The topic continued, even as their food came. The pack was hosting a Christmas party this winter, and in a couple of days some friends would be coming over. The Christmas party became tradition a couple years ago, and the friends coming over were a small pack of their own.

“The alphas are friends with them. They write songs together,” Niall said, taking a big bite out of his chicken strip.

“Are there any omegas, like us?”

“Ah, yeah, There’s one. His name’s Kaden, his two alphas are Sam and Wesley. Sam and Wesley are really nice, but Kaden can be a bit much sometimes. Just keep that in mind when you meet him,” Harry advised.

It was halfway through their meal that Emmie realized that something was wrong. Well, not wrong, but uncomfortable. She had to go to the bathroom. Does she ask permission or just go? Would they come with her? The omega’s face flushed heavily at the thought. She really hoped that wasn’t the case. Maybe she could hold it until they got home, but the pressure was building. Probably better not to risk it.

“Alpha?”

Three heads turned towards her at the same time.

Oh, goodness. “Can I, um, got to the bathroom?”

Louis nodded. “Of course.”

“Thank you for asking first, instead of just going. We need to know where you are,” Zayn said. 

Emmie rushed towards where the restrooms were. Even the bathrooms were nice. It was when she was washing her hands that the door opened. She didn’t look up, assuming it was another girl. 

She assumed wrong.

Her body was slammed up against the wall, her head whipping back and smacking against the surface with a resounding bang that left a ringing in her ears. A suffocating, fat body pressed into hers, and a hand covered her mouth.

Dull, brown eyes stared down at her. The man smiled maliciously, yellow teeth covered in plaque that seemed sickening and slick in the flourescent lighting.

“Here’s what’s gonna happen, sweet cheeks. You’re gonna stay nice an’ quiet for me. I won’t hurt cha, or nothin’. Just need some money, and I’m sure your ransome will provide.” Through the boiling fear, Emmie’s mind sluggishly came to the opinion that the man was disgusting, and he needed to brush his teeth. Desperately.

Of course, this thought was one in a million and was quickly taken over by worst case scenarios swirling around Emmie’s dizzy head. What if he raped her? What if he took her to some abandoned warehouse with cold, concrete floors, strapped her to a chair and beat her? What if she was going to be stuck with him forever because her pack couldn’t find her, or they couldn’t afford the ransom? Would he kill her if that happened? Death would be better than having to live her life under his sweaty hands. Emmie felt sick as his moist fingers gripped her upper arms. His breath fanned her face, smelling of rotten eggs and bad coffee. This was horrible. The feeling of helplessness crawled into her chest cavity and made nest there with thorns and black, greasy oil. It wrapped around her quivering heart like a python and squeezed. Emmie just hoped she’d live through it.

***

Trina had followed the shifty alpha on a whim. She’d seen the omega from earlier that day go to the bathroom, and then the man who had been side eyeing her for a long time got up and followed. Opening the bathroom door, Trina quickly pressed her hand to her mouth in an attempt to muffle any noise. She watched frozen, as the lumbering figure pressed the tiny omega roughly against the wall. Quietly closing the door, Trina stumbled back into the bustle of the cafe. 

Spotting, the girl’s pack, she rushed to their table, but couldn’t find words to tell them. She motioned frantically towards the bathrooms sputtering and gasping, luckily they got the hint.

“Fuck,” and with that they were up and sprinting towards the bathroom. Trina sat down heavily in a nearby chair. Today just got all too exciting for her.

***

Liam was the first one to enter the bathroom and witness the happenings. He was also the first one who ripped the fucker off of Emmie and got the first, bone crunching hit in. Blind with rage, the alpha pounded into the man stupid enough to try anything with his omega. It was all a sort of blur, a timeless wasteland where all he knew was that he was giving the poor excuse for an alpha everything the bastard deserved. Eventually, though, Liam emerged from rage and into controllable anger. Stepping away from the bloodied and broken mess he’d created, the head alpha turned to take stock of his pack.

Louis, Harry, and Niall were standing around Zayn and Emmie. The trembling omega had her arms locked around Zayn’s shoulders and face pressed into the crook of his neck. This was normal. It was common for omegas to scent their pack mates when distressed. What wasn’t normal was that she was dead silent. Besides the muted noise of the cafe, the bathroom was quiet. Her body shuddered softly as Zayn rubbed her back and cuddled her to him. There wasn’t anything he could say, nothing that would get through to her. Although she was silent, her mind was probably screaming and full of white noise. Right now, they just needed to get her to a hospital. 

Taking a deep breath, Liam sorted out his thoughts before doing what he did best; take care of things. “Louis, take Harry and Niall and bring the car out front. I’ll go inform the managers so they can handle the clean up. And, Zayn…” Goodness, she was still deathly quiet. “Don’t let go.” With that the pack split up with an urgency. Louis, Harry, and Niall to get the car, Liam to talk to the people in charge of the Cafe. 

Emmie didn’t know what to do with herself besides cling to someone. She had nothing to say, and it felt like her mouth was glued shut. 

Zayn slowly rocked her back and forth. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Whatever had been holding her back broke at his soft words, and she found herself sobbing into him. Her body went from trembles to shaking like an earthquake had hit. It hardly registered when he scooped her up and carried her all the way outside to the car. She did faintly smell the others. The omega stopped paying attention after that. Next thing Emmie knows is she’s sitting on an examination table, with a doctor shining a bright, pink light into her eyes. 

“Can you hear me?” the female doctor asked.

Emmie nodded, feeling out of it and fuzzy. 

“You were attacked by an alpha in the restroom, do you remember that?”

Again, Emmie nodded, even though it was all fuzzy. She felt like she remembered, kind of. “Alphas?” Where was her pack? Where’d they go?

“They’re waiting outside right now,” the doctor said, motioning to the white door. 

The omega quickly slipped off the examination table, and stumbled on the ground when the doctor turned her back to get something. Yanking open the door, she only found a sterile hallway. 

“Hey, wait!”

Emmie didn’t listen. Instead she darted left, tripping her way down the hall. She needed to find her pack. Harry smelled her fresh fruit scent before she’d even gotten to the waiting room. Jumping up, he met her in a hug as she turned the corner. Only to find she had a worried doctor hot on her trail. 

“Harry,” Emmie whispered into his neck. 

“Sorry,” the doctor raked a hand over her dark hair. “She ran out on me when I told her you guys were waiting outside.”

“Do you want us to be in there with you?” Harry asked. He knew he should leave the decision making up to the alphas, but Emmie was clearly vulnerable right now, and waiting for the alphas would take too long.

“Please,” was the quiet answer she gave Harry. 

“Alright, let’s follow the nice doctor, yeah?” 

The journey back to the examination room was slow, as Emmie point blank refused to be removed from Harry’s arm by the doctor. 

Eventually the doctor gave up all together. “Just stand next to the scale by her.” Emmie’s weight, height, ears, nose, and eyes were checked, all while keeping a firm hold on Harry with both her arms. “I’m going to need one of her arms to take her blood pressure.” The omega diligently refused to remove even one arm from her hold on the curly haired boy.

Niall was the one to save the day. “Do you want to hold hands with Harry and me?” And so, just like when they first got to the mall, Emmie was between the two boys, holding their hands. This allowed for the doctor to take her blood pressure with little issue. 

“It would seem she isn’t concussed. Just a bit bruised and tender. Nothing too bad, luckily. As for treatment, the old saying goes; affection is the best medicine. Next thing, no stressful activity for a few days. Which basically means don’t watch any horror movies or rated R anything. We recommend omegas avoid it, anyway, but because this was a traumatizing experience, keep her away from anything with a violent theme. It might speed up the healing process, both mentally and physically, if you can get her into omega space for a bit . Omega space releases multiple hormones which aid in healing.”

The alphas were handed a packet labeled Affection Is Medicine before they left urgent care. Emmie, who had been stubbornly clinging to Harry, had transferred pack members and was sleeping in Louis’ arms as they made their way back out to the car. Throughout the drive, Emmie kept her face pressed into Louis’ neck as she slept fitfully through the car ride. The solemn atmosphere continued up until the pack was back in the house. This was mostly because Emmie had woken up, and she need not know the inner turmoil the alphas were experiencing at having failed to protect their omega after only twenty four hours of having her. 

“We’re home,” she noted lazily, when she opened her eyes to find herself curled into Louis as the pack was gathered in the living room.

Liam’s eyes averted towards the window, looking out into the front yard. “Yeah.”

Something was off. The TV wasn’t turned on, and nobody was making eye contact with anyone. Even though Louis had his arms around Emmie, he still felt distant, and not all together there. Niall and Harry weren’t even looking up, both quiet with no expression on their face. Liam looked tired, and Zayn seemed to have the world on his shoulders with the way he hunched over, forearms on his knees as he was sitting on the couch.

“Why does everyone look so sad?” Emmie asked.

“You were just assaulted by an alpha.” Zayn rubbed at his jaw, an anxious habit he’d never quite fallen out of.

“But you guys saved me. I’m okay.”

The alpha holding her sighed and shook his head. “But if we had just gone with you, none of this would have happened. You’ve only been with us for a day and already…”

Emmie felt panic fill her lungs. What Louis said sounded too much like a goodbye for her. “So what?” she ripped herself from the alpha’s lap and glared at the guilt stricken pack. “It was just bad luck. Life happens! But wallowing in self pity will do nothing for anyone. Not only that, but what were you supposed to do? Go and, and just watch me as I did my business?”

“Yes!” Liam exclaimed.

“No!” Emmie scoffed back. Liam’s eyes widened at her conviction. “That should never happen. I don’t want you hovering over me while I- you know- that’s just embarrassing. Besides, that was only one man. Not everybody is like him. You guys aren’t like him.”

“But you deserve better,” Zayn whispered. 

Emmie faltered at that. “What?”

“You deserve better. You could have been- We would have lost- It’s only been a day, Emmie. In under twenty four hours we nearly lost you to some low life.” His face twisted as he spat out the words. When she made to protest, Zayn held up his hand. She quieted. “I know you were raised differently, but in this world, in this household, we expect more of our alphas. We have proven ourselves to be unfit to guide and care for you.”

The blonde took a step back, as if it would soften the blow. “Wait, so you’re…”

He winced and looked down at his hands. “We’ll find you a really nice pack. One that can protect you.”

“You’re a liar!” she screamed. Everyone startled at the height of her voice. Emmie’s lips trembled and her breath wavered with emotion. “Y-you’re all li-liars! You said that I could be a p-part of this p-pack a-and everything, but n-now you’re ki-kicking me out?!”

“You deserve better,” Zayn said again.

Emmie hissed as if she’d been burned, then choked in a breath of air before yelling, “I don’t want better, I want you!” Then she bolted out of the living room and up the stairs. 

Tears marred her eyesight as she chose the room at the end of the hall and tumbled into it. The study was dim and dark, but clean. Spotting the mahogany desk, Emmie ran around to the other side of it and crawled into the space meant for legs. Hidden away inside a cubby of wood, she cried for everything that was being taken away from her just because some stupid alpha got his stupid hands on her in the stupid bathroom. If only she’d just waited to go until they were home. None of this would have happened. She could be wrestling with Niall and Harry or watching a movie while cuddling. Not sitting under a desk all alone, about to lose everything because of something as fickle as guilt.

***

The alphas were quiet, listening to Emmie’s footsteps as she ran away.

Harry felt himself grow angry. Who were they to make this decision without consulting the other half of the pack? “You’re not serious are you?” Harry sneered.

Louis sighed. “Harry-”

“Don’t ‘Harry’ me. Packs are supposed to take care of each other when these things happen. Not pass off members because they feel bad about what happened.”

“Yeah,” Niall stepped forward as well. “What about when that beta beat up Harry? He was way worse off than Emmie , but you didn’t try and shove him off to another fucking pack because you felt guilty!”

“Niall,” Liam said with warning in his voice. Cussing was not allowed.

“No! I’ll watch my mouth when you look at what you’re saying. When else are we going to find another omega to complete this pack, huh? No one can replace Emmie, and what can another pack provide her that we can’t?”

“Safety.”

Niall looked at Zayn like he’d just set a kitten on fire. “Are you blind? No one is safe! That’s how life is, it’s the risk we take everyday of our lives, and you’re throwing away something we’ve all always wanted because of some misguided, poorly thought out excuse.”

The two omegas stormed off into the house to find Emmie, who was probably in shambles by now. 

A few minutes after the omegas had left, Liam ran a hand through his hair. “They’re right.”

“We fucked up,” Zayn agreed.

“Best to apologize now than let it fester, yeah?” Louis suggested. 

The alphas found the omegas in the study, huddled on the couch with Emmie sniffling between them. The three turned at the sound of people entering. 

The cold glares that Zayn received from Harry and Niall upon opening his mouth were not encouraging, but he pressed on. “Emmie.” She looked at him, eyes rimmed red, tear tracks still visible on her face.

“That was mean,” she told him

“Yes, ah, and, we’re sorry. We just panicked. The life we live isn’t normal, or safe, or even consistent. Seeing that man do that to you, well, it frightened us.”

Emmie raised an eyebrow, watching the alphas wallow for a few moments. “I forgive you.” That quickly? “But you can’t freak out like that again.” She paused, as if considering something. “And you owe me lots of cuddles.” Harry whispered something to Emmie, making her smirk. “And cake. Chocolate cake.”

“Done,” Liam said, eager to move past all this.

“And-” Emmie stood up excitedly. “And for the rest of the day you have to call Harry ‘My Lord’ and Niall ‘Your Majesty’. As for me,” she pretended to think about it, tapping her chin, before grinning at them. “You must address me as ‘Almighty Warrior’.” 

The alphas got off lightly, but it was still going to be a long night, if the omegas’ sassy attitudes were anything to go by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment or Kudos if you're so inclined! If not, then move on with your life :)


	3. One For All And All For One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emmie is a wonderful addition to the pack, but a pack-friend disagrees.

“How can they have so much energy?” Louis asked, watching the omegas chase each other in the park. The same one they found Emmie in.

The pack had gone to the exclusive park so that the omegas could burn off all of their pent up energy. The alphas hadn’t realized how restless the three had been getting until they were set loose in the park. This was probably due to the fact that while the alphas worked out regularly, the omegas didn’t, and thus being at home all the time made them stir crazy. 

“We’re going to have to start giving them a workout regimen,” Liam theorized.

Still, it was nice to just sit back and watch how their omegas played with each other. Harry had taken to initiating surprise attacks on Emmie. He’d creep low to the grass when her back was turned, and then tackle her to the ground. Niall seemed to find enjoyment from just narrating their little tussles. Harry nearly always won, but when he’d noticed that Emmie was getting discouraged, he gave her a very convincing win, allowing her the confidence boost it took to keep her in his little game. It warmed Zayn’s heart to see them get along so well, what with how skittish Niall and Harry were around others of their second gender. Emmie had yet to meet any other omegas beside her pack mates, so there was no telling whether she’d be trusting or not. The dark haired alpha almost wished this could last forever, the calm and happy days. He knew as well as the others that when touring started, it wouldn’t be calm at all, but it would still be happy. Well, he hoped it would be. This was all balanced on how well Emmie would be able to adjust to such a life. Watching as the three omegas started racing back and forth across the grass, Zayn had to agree with Liam’s sentiment; they really needed to have the three work out because the amount of energy they had right now was almost astounding. 

Eventually chasing turned into jumping into the piles of leaves around the park. It evolved from there into a leaf fight. A handful of leaves smacked Emmie in the face. She took the hit, and stumbled back like she’d been shot and fell into the mountain of leaves behind her with flourish. 

“Harry, you killed her!” Niall played along, adopting a strangled expression. “How are we going to tell the alphas?”

The curly haired omega struck a thinking pose. “We won’t tell them anything, we’ll just dump her body in the river.”

Appalled at the idea of being rolled into the freezing waters Emmie sat up, leaves sticking out of her hair. “Over my dead body!”

“It is your dead body, yes,” Harry noted.

Emmie playfully growled at Harry. Growling was something she had never been able to do before. The first time she’d growled it had completely blind sided her. Niall had stolen her bowl of blueberries, and the sound had just slipped out so naturally she didn’t think to stop it. Needless to say, Emmie had been thoroughly shocked, and was convinced she was somehow going savage. The alphas explained that this was not the case, and that it was normal to make such noises. They did mention something about respect after that, but Emmie was still circling over the fact that she had growled. 

“Not all growls are aggressive,” Zayn had told her. “Some of them are playful, or just mildly irritated. Over time you’ll be able to tell the difference. Try not to growl in front of anyone but us, though, okay?”

“Alright.” Emmie couldn’t imagine willingly growling in front of anyone but her pack. That just sounded embarrassing.

The omegas chased after each other for a while, resting for short periods of time before starting all over again. By the time they had collapsed onto each other it was the preplanned time that the alphas had wanted to head home. Approaching the omegas, Liam found them in a mess of tired limbs about to fall asleep on each other. It was cute, the way they huddled into one another for warmth, but it was better for them to eat before they fell asleep.

Knowing this, Liam shook them out of their dazes. “Come on, time to go home.”

Too tired to bother with responses, they all rose from the grass and followed the alphas to the car.

“How was today, did you have fun?” Zayn asked, ruffling a sleepy Niall’s hair.

The Irish lad nodded. “Yeah.”

“And now you’re all worn out?”

Zayn’s answer was resounding yawns. The car was peacefully quiet, the omegas in the very back cuddled into each other. Leaves still stuck to different parts of their bodies, but none of them seemed to mind as they formed themselves into a picturesque image of the perfect omegas. Needless to say, many pictures were taken and posted. Social media was a great outlet for alpha pride, and Louis certainly felt pride well in his chest looking at the delicate omegas dozing. A lot of packs weren’t nearly as compatible as theirs. All packs have a few bumps in the road, but some were horrendous to even imagine. There were packs where the omegas are absolutely spoilt and entitled with no manners. They’d deem something as a necessity and look to their alphas to provide it (whether they actually needed it or not). Quite a few times Louis had witnessed fiery temper tantrums. One time in particular, the omega had been denied what they wanted. The boy’s face got red and he started slamming merchandise to the ground and knocking over racks of clothing, all while cursing out his alpha. The profanity he used was enough to make even Louis wince. In the end the alpha bought the omega what he wanted. It was these kinds of things that made all three alphas in this pack breathe a sigh of relief. They’d dodged a bullet. While normally omegas weren’t that bad, Louis knew enough to know they’d gotten the top one percent in terms of omega quality.

As alphas, they had truly hit the jackpot. Harry was the charming, charismatic omega that everyone enjoyed talking to. He could make friends with anybody, and had a knack for getting people to relax around him. Although he was stubborn at times, he was obedient where it counted. He also held a huge penchant for cuddling and hugs. Niall was the bubbly, carefree omega that any alpha would have a hard time saying ‘no’ to. Sometimes Louis wondered whether he practiced his puppy eyes in front of the mirror. He had a bit of bite to him, which led Louis to believe that even when Emmie gets a hang of things, both Harry and Niall will still be her protectors. Emmie was an omega through-and-through, whether she knew what that meant or not. It was in the way she’d always look to the pack for direction or permission. How she melted into hugs and became a snuggle monster when provoked. She also held Harry and Niall in high esteem. Whenever asked about her day she’d go on about how cool Harry was, or how funny Niall had been. Her adoration was clearly mutual, as Harry and Niall responded in kind. It was odd, seeing the protective side of his other two omegas. It was also the most amazing thing in the world. Like a couple days ago when Emmie had lightly burnt herself on a pan, the two omegas got to her before Zayn could even stand up to check on her. They’d gently examined her hand and brought her to the sink to run it under cold water. Liam watched in a stupor, Zayn was gaping at them. Louis, well, Louis was taking pictures. He had a problem, or so Zayn told him. It wasn’t his fault their omegas made it a habit to fall asleep on each other, or wage cuddle wars! Someone had to be responsible and capture those moments. Besides, the fans loved seeing the pictures, if the thousands of positive comments were any indicator.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The next day the pack went to the park again. Emmie didn’t bother to wonder why, she was just happy they got to go. Well, she was, until the bastard came along. True, she wasn’t allowed to cuss, but it didn’t count if it was in her head, right? The alphas were on the other side of the park, and just out of view when it happened.

Harry and Niall had been play wrestling in the leaves, a new hobby shared by the trio, when the beta had approached them.

He sneered, dull eyes malicious. “You’re such a man whore,” he said.

All the omegas froze. Emmie didn’t know who he was talking about, but the beta didn’t seem to mind elaborating.

“I mean, come on. Everyone knows you’ve been around this whole town a couple of times over before you supposedly settled down. How’s it feel to be a tainted omega?”

It was when Harry’s green eyes burst into tears and his scent went sad (a more damp, resigned version of his scent), that Emmie decided that sitting down and taking this was not an option. Harry, the omega that had sat with her on the kitchen floor when she first got here. Harry, who had explained the way this strange world works. Harry, who was always up for a cuddle and a laugh, was crying. Rage didn’t even begin to describe the fire in Emmie’s veins. No, she was livid. This bastard was going to pay.

The foreign omega let out a roar. Needless to say, the beta certainly wasn’t expecting to be side tackled by a tiny girl. Size didn’t matter, because right now Emmie was a warrior and she was going to beat this bastard so far into the ground he’d find a natural water source. She got two good punches in before she was kicked off, breath leaving her lungs. Her fury only got stronger. Dodging around a defensive kick, she was on him again. He was ready, though. He flipped the tables and wrapped his hands around her neck, pressing her to the dry leaves as he tried to choke her out. Emmie wasn’t one to be deterred by lack of oxygen. Instead of going for his hands, which were attempting to crush her throat, she punched him in the nose (his fault for leaning in so close). A satisfying crunch sounded, so she did it again. The third time was weak, due to lack of air, but on the bright side, the beta’s face was now a bloody mess. 

The man was ripped off of her, and Emmie drew in a stinging breath of air. She choked on the first few breaths, like she was learning how to breathe all over again. Rolling over onto her side, she pushed herself up and watched Louis knock the beta unconscious with just one hit. 

All of this led her to where she is now, standing in the living room being scolded. 

“What if he had a knife, or a gun? Emmie you’d be dead,” Zayn berated her. Emmie stubbornly glared at the floor, what was she supposed to do, let Harry be mentally torn apart?

“Emmie McAllister, you better be listening to your alpha,” Liam growled. Thus far the omega had been silent throughout the lecture, and Liam was tiring of it.

Her eyes flashed up, righteous and petulant. “He made Harry cry, and called him a curse word. Harry doesn’t deserve that.”

Louis stepped in, attempting to play mediator between the two genders. “We know that, Ems, but attacking the beta wasn’t the answer.”

“But you guys attacked the man that hurt me at the mall. How is this any different? You protected me when I needed it, so I protected Harry. No one gets to hurt my pack. The beta deserved everything he got,” she said, scowling at the floor like she was face to face with the beta again.

Running a hand through his hair, Liam knew that what he was about to say would not go down well. “The reason for that is because we’re alphas, and you’re an omega.” Seeing that Emmie was about to protest, Liam held up his hand, and continued, “Alphas are superior in terms of speed and strength, betas are the middle ground, and omegas just don’t match up at all. What do you think would have happened had we not shown up in time? If you’d been hurt worse? How would Harry feel knowing that you got hurt while trying to protect him?”

The last statement seemed to get through to the omega, as her eyes widened. “But it wouldn’t be Harry’s fault.”

“No, but, Emmie, we care for you. We don’t want you getting injured or worse,” Zayn explained. “The best thing to do in that situation is to get us. We know that you were just trying to protect Harry, but it was reckless, that's why you’re getting punished. We just got you, we don’t want to lose you, understand?”

She nodded and and whispered, “Yes, alpha.”

“Fifteen spanks for your reckless behavior with another five added on for being snappy and rude to us while we were trying to explain things.” Liam said, gauging her expression. She needed to understand why they were punishing her before they did so, otherwise it would just be meaningless pain.

The omega nodded, agreeing to her first punishment.

“I’m going to go check on Niall and Harry.” Louis left to find the duo, leaving Zayn and Liam to split the punishment.

Reaching out, Liam brought Emmie across his lap. Even though she was being punished, she couldn’t help but blush over how muscled Liam’s thighs were. She pushed back the thoughts of his warm body and what a good cuddler he was. She was about to be punished, it would be best to leave fluffy thoughts for later.

“Why are you being punished?”

“Because I was reckless and had an attitude when you were talking to me,” Emmie said quietly, as if the softer she said the words the softer Liam’s spanking would be.

“You’re going to count each one I give you. Because this is your first time, if you forget what number you’re at Zayn and I will remind you. I’m giving you ten and Zayn’s giving you ten,” Liam said.

The first hit was jarring and it took a moment for the omega to think past the sting and count one outloud. Liam’s hands were bigger than she’d anticipated and covered large areas, leaving her cheeks burning and smarting in his wake. Zayn was worse, though he had smaller hands, his hits were faster and harder. What he lacked in size he made up for in speed and strength. By the end of it all, the newest pack member was out of breath and trying to stay quiet through the pain. Zayn brought Emmie up into sitting position, her butt hanging off the side of his legs. He guided her to scent him as she calmed and settled. For something so painful and unpleasant, Emmie really didn’t understand why she felt so… relieved at having been punished. Was this an omega thing? She could ask the boys later. For now, she let Zayn rub her back and praise her for taking her punishment so well while she inhaled his warm scent of desert flowers and slight spice.

As alphas, it wasn’t always easy to punish their omegas. Emmie had truly thought she was doing the right thing by fighting the beta, but that was why the alphas were there. To teach her and protect her. Now that her first punishment was out of the way, as it was a big milestone for a pack, it would be easier to bond closer with her. She had taken her spanking well, and minutes afterwards had asked to go see Harry.

At their consent she’d bolted off of Zayn’s lap and towards where Louis had gone a while earlier. The two alphas followed at a more sedate pace. Walking into the bedroom, they found Emmie forcing her way onto Harry’s lap.

Grabbing his face in her hands, she said, “You are amazing and perfect and pure, Harry. Don’t listen to that stupid beta.”

“But-,” Harry didn’t get a chance to say anything self depreciating.

“Who was the one who helped explain this culture to me? Who gets Zayn to smile in the mornings?”

“...Me.”

“That’s right,” Emmie smiled. “And who sometimes lets me win our wrestling matches? Who ran my burn from cooking under cold water?” When Harry didn’t answer, the girl omega did it for him, “You did, Harry. Nobody’s perfect, but you come dang close. I don’t know about your past, and I don’t care. To me you’re the Harry who sat with me at the doctor’s office. You’re Harry, and that’s all you’ll ever need to be, because being you is more than enough.”

The curly haired omega wasn’t sure whether he was just that obvious about his insecurities, or if Emmie just had a sixth sense for it, but she ended up addressing all of the things that haunted him. Pulling her tight to him, Harry inhaled her increasingly familiar scent. She smelled like fresh apple pies, and it was enough to bring him up from the downward spiral he’d fallen into upon being called a man whore. He wasn’t tainted, he was just Harry. Pulling back and looking at his smiling pack, the omega knew that Emmie’s words were true. Just being himself would be enough. That night the omegas slept peacefully, curled into the nest of blankets they’d made, and the alphas knew for sure that Emmie had been the right choice. They were the luckiest alphas in the world.  
+++++++++

Adjusting to her new way of life wasn’t all that hard, but it was different, and it was an adjustment. As such, sometimes Emmie tried to fight it her new instincts, she didn’t do it all the time. Certainly couldn’t even if she tried, but sometimes she just resisted. Honesty was a rule, sure, and immediately when Emmie had started feeling nauseous, she thought of it. How on her first day she was told that lying, whether by omission or otherwise, was not allowed. You can’t blame her though! Everyone was so excited for the other pack to come over for dinner, she couldn’t just ruin that. Especially since they were going to be having a songwriting session. Emmie had never been particularly musical, so she really wanted to sit in and see creative minds at work. That wouldn’t happen if she was sick. So, like the rational person she was, Emmie promptly decided that no, this was not happening today and she was not sick. She could be sick later on in life. Right now, she was cooking the best meal of her life because special guests were coming over and her pack was excited. 

 

“They’re arriving at five?” Emmie asked Zayn who was watching her bustle around the kitchen.

“Yeah,” the alpha trailed off, watching all the dishes going on at the same time. “You know there’s only three of them, right?”

Emmie didn’t take her eyes off of the potato she was peeling. “I know, I just want this to be really good.”

Niall swept in, duster in hand and stole a piece of cheese. “Your dinners are always good, Ems. Don’t stress.”

The blond was gone as quickly as he had come, disappearing into the livingroom. Everyone had a job to do; Louis was cleaning the windows, Liam was mowing the lawn, Harry was doing floors, and Niall was dusting. Being quite honest, Emmie was lost on what it was Zayn was doing, but refrained from asking. 

Despite the many dishes, Emmie had just finished everything when the clock hit five. The meal consisted of mashed potatoes(from scratch, the boxed stuff felt too much like cheating), a roast, green beans, biscuits, and gravy. For dessert she’d made a chocolate cake, and cut up fruit. In all, it took her about three hours. She wasn’t cooking the whole time, the most of it was waiting for things to cook, but by the end of it the sick omega was just ready to nap. She never got the chance to even sit down when the doorbell rang. 

Zayn answered the door, as he was the closest, and smiled warmly at the pack friends. “Hey, you made it!”

“Yeah,” Sam sighed, brushing back long, dark hair. “The traffic was insane on the way up, though. Wesley thought for sure we’d be late.”

The small pack was welcomed in from the frigid November air. Liam stood proudly in front of his pack, more specifically, their new member. Emmie had insisted on dressing up for the occasion, even though Louis had told her many times that it was informal and she could wear whatever she wanted. Still, the pack appreciated the effort she put in as it made her look even more huggable than usual. She was wearing a summer dress (why she wore one even though it was so cold out was a mystery), her cheeks held a slight blush, which made her look like a porcelain doll. The four band mates watched in pride as Sam and Wesley took her in with slight shock. They’d never seen any girl omegas look so delicately polite and submissive. The girl had incredibly long eyelashes, which could even rival Zayn’s. Her big, blue eyes looked up at them curiously as her head did a slight tilt, a subconscious sign of submission. What was even more telling, was how her pack acted around her. They all stood tall, with smiles on their faces. After all the bad omegas the pack had been through in their search of completion, they deserved nothing less than the best. It would seem they’d gotten it. (Not quite as good as their omega, Kaden, but still).

“We also brought a little gift for your new omega,” Wesley stated, holding out a stuffed animal. “Thought you guys could scent mark it for her so when you’re out late performing or whatever, she can have a piece of you with her.”

The stuffed animal, was a light, teal green dinosaur, with what looked to be the softest fur, and cutest face Emmie had ever seen.

“That’s a wonderful idea, thank you so much!” Liam said. “Here, I’ll mark it quickly for now.” Pressing the stuffie to his scent gland on his neck, the head alpha released calming pheromones, allowing the special material of the stuffie to absorb it. These stuffed animals were made specifically for retaining alpha’s scents. 

“You got me a stuffed animal?” Emmie whispered, looking up at the African American alpha, Wesley. When he nodded, the girl looked close to tears. “You’re so nice, thank you.”

It was hard not to swoop down and embrace the tiny thing when she thanked him so genuinely. “You’re most welcome, little one.”

Liam handed Emmie the stuffie, and she immediately pressed her face into the fur and giggled. “Smells like you,” she told him. She had every heart in the room, except for one.

Kaden didn’t like this new omega. She was completely fake, how could no one else see it? Not to mention annoying. Who giggles from a stupid stuffed animal? She was a disgrace to all omegas, but Harry and Niall didn’t seem to realize it, because all throughout dinner they included her into their jokes and conversations that they were having with him. He was their friend first, and he was quite proud of it. Not many omegas got close to the famous omega duo. Kaden was special, she was just a hindrance. So when he found out the dinner was prepared by the girl, he took his shot.

Just loud enough for her to hear, he said, “This tastes weird.” Kaden knew what he was doing. It wasn’t enough to make it look odd as he continued to eat the meal (it wasn’t that great, by the way), but it was just the right amount of criticism, because Emmie looked down at her plate with furrowed eyebrows. Nobody seemed to notice her insecurities, but Kaden noticed. The plan had begun.

Emmie clung to her new stuffie, Jeffery, throughout dinner. Liam’s scent helped her stay grounded and focus on the dinner conversations instead of her uncomfortable temperature and pounding head ache. Unfortunately, she also heard what Kaden had said, “This tastes weird.” Her food. The food she worked so hard on tasted off? Was he talking about a specific dish or all of it in general? Did everyone think it tasted weird, but were too polite to say anything? Oh no, what if she’d ruined dinner? What if everyone was talking so much because they wanted to avoid eating? This was not good, not good at all. Maybe she didn’t season the roast enough, or there wasn’t enough butter in the gravy. Where did she go wrong? Emmie felt herself pale as realization sank in. She was sick, and so she couldn’t taste things as well as usual. There could be something drastically wrong, but she wouldn’t be able to tell because she was sick! For the rest of dinner, the girl couldn’t focus on what people were saying. She watched everyone as they ate, they seemed to like it. Whenever she looked over at Kaden, he ate things with a slight grimace. Maybe everyone else was putting on a facade, trying to just get through dinner, but Kaden’s expressions said it all. She’d failed. The one thing she could contribute to the get together and it all went down the drain. Luckily dinner was finished and everyone moved to the living room to get to writing music.

“You can do the dishes later,” Harry told Emmie as she gathered plates.

She just smiled at him. “It’s okay, it’s easier than if we waited and I can’t write music. Besides, doing the dishes is calming.” And goodness knows she needed a reprieve to get herself together. Carefully placing Jeffery on the window sill in front of the sink, Emmie got to work. 

She had to take small breaks as the head aches increased in intensity. Her legs felt like jelly and her balance seemed slightly off kilter. 

“Oh, I didn’t know you were into science,” Kaden said, startling her. Emmie turned to see a kind smile on his face as he glanced towards her cake.

“Huh?”

“That’s a science project, right?” He meant the cake. The cake that Emmie had taken thirty minutes decorating with chocolate icing and making it look fancy. The cake that she double checked all the measurements on just to make sure she was accurate. The one thing Emmie had been sure she couldn’t have messed up because of how careful she was. Her cake was the equivalent of a poor science experiment. “Ah, anyways, the alphas asked if you could bring out your cake now. I bet it looks really good! I hope your science experiment goes well.” With that, Kaden turned away and smirked, mission accomplished. Who’s special now?

Putting the last dish out to dry, Emmie grabbed the cake and made her way unsteadily into the livingroom. How was it possible to mess up something so entirely? She wasn’t paying attention, so when Kaden accidentally bumped into her, she dropped the cake. It fell and plopped on the ground, smooshing into the floor in a mess of brown. Silence permeated the room for a few moments before there was a whirlwind of motions. Kaden started apologizing, while her alphas moved to get something to clean up the mess she’d made. Emmie couldn’t bring herself to look away from the accumulation of all her mistakes. Why did she even bother getting up in the morning? She should have stayed in bed. 

Liam said something to her as he cleaned up the mess. Emmie heard the words and saw his lips move, but couldn’t process what it meant. Instead, she numbly climbed the stairs and went to bed, avoiding eye contact as she did.

The alphas were lost on what to do as Emmie retreated to the upstairs. She didn’t say anything, not even when Liam assured her that it was fine and they didn’t need cake anyway. It didn’t seem in character for her to just shut down like that, not over cake, at least. While the alphas were trading theories with each other, Harry and Niall had an idea of what went down. Kaden’s smug little smirk really gave it away. 

Niall felt protectiveness boil to the surface as well as betrayal. He’d known that Kaden wasn’t really an omega keen on sharing things, such was why his alphas never bothered with another omega, but this? Emmie was his omega. Nobody got to mess with his pack that way.

“What did you do?” The alphas stopped brainstorming and looked over to where Niall was death glaring at Kaden.

“N-nothing.” Kaden’s pale complexion at being called out said otherwise. 

Harry narrowed his eyes at the boy, whom he had thought to be trustworthy, but now he wasn’t so sure. Kaden shifted nervously and avoided eye contact. He couldn’t look more guilty if he’d tried.

“Kaden,” Sam said, looking at the flustered omega. “What did you do?”

“It wasn’t even that big of a deal! I just said a few things. She’s oversensitive, that’s all.” His alpha’s silence spurred him into explanation. “I just said her food tasted weird, but not to her face, I swear.”

“But she heard you?” Kaden reluctantly nodded in confirmation, Wesley frowned. “She heard you, but you didn’t apologize.”

Sam’s eyebrow rose. “That’s not the whole story, though, is it?”

“I may have also, um, implied that, you know- that, her, her cake looked like a science experiment.” Kaden looked down, he didn’t want to see his alphas’ expressions.

Sam turned to Liam and apologized for his omega’s errors, promising there will definitely be consequences before his pack left to hand out said punishments. The song writing could wait for another time. The pack headed up to the room to explain the situation to Emmie, but when Zayn opened the bedroom doors he got an armful of crying omega. 

“M’sorry!” She clung tightly to him, before looking up at him. “I didn’t mean to ruin everything.”

Zayn brought up a hand to brush the hair out of her face. “It’s okay, love. You’re-,” he paused, before firmly pressing a hand to her forehead. “You’re hot.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Not the time, Malik.”

“No, no, I mean she’s burning up.”

Liam immediately left to get the medical kit, so he could take her temperature. During which Emmie took the time to start apologizing profusely to Harry and Niall.

“I ruined your friend-time,” she blubbered, still in slight hysterics. “Your friend-time is over because the food was bad. They left because it tasted weird. M’sorry. Please don’t be mad.”

Niall immediately took the girl into his arms. “We’re not mad, lovely. They had to go soon anyway because Kaden got sick.” Niall knew Emmie wasn’t in the place emotionally to do anything but deny his reassurances that it wasn’t her food, so he just made up a story. And regretted it immediately.

The girl yanked away from Niall’s warm hold. “That was my fault! I’m-I’m sick, and I cooked anyway ‘cause I wanted you to have friend-time, and, and,” she broke down in tears again.

Luckily, Liam showed up with the thermometer and Jeffery. He picked up the sick omega and sat her down on the bed. The head alpha was once again reminded of how small and fragile omegas were, because her feet didn’t even come close to touching the ground. Pressing Jeffery to her chest, the omega’s arms wrapped around the dinosaur stuffie on instinct. She was still panicking and out of breath, which had to be fixed before he could take her temperature.

Holding her face, Liam had Emmie look in his eyes before allowing his irises to bleed gold. In moments her eyes matched his in color, making their souls in tune with each other. Gently, Liam thrummed tranquility through the connection, his gold glowing brighter as he did so. It worked, as her tears stopped and her breathing evened out. The alpha carefully eased out of the connection when he was sure she wouldn’t fall back into hysterics. Eyes returning to normal, he held up the glass thermometer for Emmie to see.

“I’m going to put this in your mouth, and I need it under your tongue so I can take your temperature, alright?”

He received a dazed nod, which was normal for an omega after being compelled by an alpha, no matter how gently. Liam slipped the thermometer in, and Emmie did as told. She watched quietly as he set a three minute timer on his phone. By the two minute mark Emmie began to get antsy, shifting from the uncomfortable feeling of a foreign object in her mouth. 

“Stay still for me, Ems. Be a good girl.” At Liam’s words Emmie’s pupils doubled in size and her blue eyes started to go silver, signaling she was about to go into omega space. 

Louis tapped her lightly on the nose, causing her to blink and focus back in on him. “Don’t go down just yet. Still taking your temperature, remember?”

Right when the timer went off, Liam removed the thermometer and examined her temperature 38.7 °C. No wonder she was so emotional, omegas with fevers or heats tended to get that way. They also became mentally vulnerable, which would explain why she was so affected by Kaden’s passing comments. Oblivious to her alpha’s deductions, Emmie held her arms out for Zayn who happily picked her up and placed her on his hip. It soothed his alpha to have her close.

“What’s the verdict?” Harry asked as he went on his tiptoes, trying to see what the thermometer read. 

“38.7, if she hits 39, we’re taking her to the hospital.”

“You should give her a bath like you do with Harry and me when we’re sick,” Niall suggested, watching Emmie shiver and curl into Zayn.

“That’s a good idea,” Louis immediately agreed. “She can even drop into omega space while you do it, it’ll help with fighting off whatever she has.”

Emmie lifted her head and looked at the pack with slightly glazed eyes. “Bath?”

“Yeah, you’ll enjoy it. Alphas gives great baths,” Harry assured her.

Emmie was passed to the head alpha, who carefully cradled her to his chest as Zayn got the water ready.

“I’m going to bring you to omega space, okay?” Emmie nodded into Liam’s chest as Louis kept his word and gently pressed his hand to the back of her neck and squeezed softly in just the right angle. 

Emmie who was already slightly out of it, slipped easily into omega space for the second time in her life. It felt like her mind just relaxed. She hadn’t even known it was tense before her alpha put her under. Like the first time, colours were vibrant and distracting. Like the blue on Liam’s button up, like an ocean, but on fabric. Letting her head loll to the side, Emmie spotted Niall, and blushed hard enough for it to be noticeable on her already flushed face.

“You’re so cute,” she told him, tongue feeling clumsy as she said it. “So is Harry. Are all boy omegas as cute as you?” She felt her eyebrows furrow in thought, ignoring the chuckles coming from her alphas. “Because Kaden was an omega, but he doesn’t come close to your adorable.”

“Our adorable?” Harry teased lightly.

“Yeah,” Emmie’s eyes moved behind her fellow omegas to stare at the soft looking bed behind them. “No one else seems to have it, so it’s yours.”

Zayn came out of the bathroom, smiling in amusement from Emmie’s uncensored opinions. “The bath’s ready.”

Emmie was quickly stripped and settled into the warm bath waters. Liam kept a good hold on her so she wouldn’t topple into the water. When water was poured over her and the alphas got to scrubbing her back with a warm washcloth, Emmie fell deep enough into omega space that she couldn’t interact with her surroundings, only sit in quiet content as she was gently washed. Zayn seemed to be the best at baths, because he rubbed over her back in all the right places. By the end of it, Emmie was purring and half asleep. Her body felt like one giant, limp noodle. She was dressed in one of the alpha’s sweatshirts, before she was allowed to cuddle into Louis, drifting off in moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment or kudos if you're so inclined, but if not, go ahead and move on with your life!  
> (Hey, that rhymes)


	4. Snow Days Are the Best Days

It seemed like winter happened overnight. The pack went to bed, and it was fall, but waking up they were greeted with snow. Pristine and white. So when Harry woke Niall and Emmie up to play while the alphas slept, they were all for it. Creeping out of the warm bed, and over the sleeping alphas, the three omegas dressed quickly (which meant way too lightly, considering the weather conditions) and raced each other to the back yard. 

“Snow!” Harry exclaimed, flopping into it.

Niall and Emmie quickly followed suit. They kicked the snow and rolled around in it, all the while ignoring the cold creeping into them, too distracted by the falling flakes and catching them on their tongues. They watched in fascination as the flakes would land on their hands and melt away from body heat.

“Look how fluffy they are,” Niall said, pointing up at the clouded over sky, from where snowflakes started flowing down at a faster rate. They also increased in size and got as big as quarters.

“I hope it snows all day,” Emmie sighed.

By now the small omegas were side by side, laying in the snow. It was lethargic and peaceful, just watching the snow fall softly. If they were quiet enough it almost felt as if they could hear each individual flake landing amongst the others. Their clothes had soaked through long ago, but none of them could bring themselves to go back inside with the allure of winter still fresh and calling. Freezing ice pressed against their backs, numbing them slightly. Their fingers were bright red, with noses to match. It hadn’t even occurred to the omegas how the alphas would react to find them out of the house without warning.

Liam woke up before the other two alphas, as was normal. Shifting up onto his forearms to survey his pack, the head alpha found half of it missing. Having Emmie out of bed wasn’t unusual, but normally Harry and Niall slept in along with Louis and Zayn. Dragging himself out of bed, Liam pulled on a shirt and stumbled his way downstairs. A flare of panic raced through his chest when he found the kitchen empty and silent. It had been a long time since he had awoken to a kitchen unoccupied by Emmie’s morning cheer. A cold chill interrupted Liam’s slight panic. Down the hallway, the door to the backyard was ajar, letting in a small mound of snow. At this point, Liam had a good idea of what he was going to see. Opening the door, it was just as he’d expected. His little omegas were laying in the snow together, whispering comments of awe to one another. It would have been picture perfect, if it wasn’t for the fact that they were all probably contracting hypothermia.

“Omegas, get in here,” Liam called. Immediately, the three scrambled out of the snow and into the house where their alpha was anxiously waiting. Liam lamented silently to himself. What was he going to do with them? They were covered in snow. It was everywhere on them, sticking in their hair, layered onto their clothes (that weren’t at all appropriate to be playing out in the snow, by the way), there were even snowflakes in their long, omegan eye lashes. Spotting the blue tints to their lips, Liam thought to himself, to hell with it.

The head alpha marched the omegas straight up the stairs and into the bathroom connected to their bedroom. This bathroom had a bathtub suited for multiple people. Turning on the water, he let the tub fill with warm water before turning to the omegas, who were going over their recent adventure.

“It was so cool when we threw the snow in the air and some of it floated down like snow-mist,” Harry gushed, not even flinching when Liam stripped the lad of his jacket, shirt, and pants. All the omegas’ shoes were already kicked off and lying haphazardly in the hallway.

“I thought it was funny when you and Niall gave each other white-washes,” Emmie piped up as Niall was also rid of his clothes.

The Irish omega shook his head. “No, what was the best was when you tripped when you were running and landed in the snow. It made it fluff up like you were an atom bomb.”

Emmie laughed along with him. Liam silently prayed to God for patience. These omegas were going to be the death of him. Making quick work of Emmie’s clothes, Liam turned back to the bath, and adjusted the temperature accordingly. Niall was the first to try out the waters, but jerked his leg back out quickly.

“It’s too hot!”

“It’s not, you’ve just been playing outside, in the snow, without the proper gear on.” Liam had made sure it was the right temperature for omegas. This wasn’t his first bath time fiasco.

Emmie tried out the water next, using only her hand before frowning and taking her hand back out. “Hot.”

Liam had taken enough omega oriented health classes to know that their current temperature was not healthy at all. Even though going from one extreme to the other was normally unhealthy and caused a shock to the body, for omegas it was better than easing them into it, because the time it takes may be too long. Thus, without further discussion, Liam plopped each of his omegas into the bath waters with practiced ease. He was met with gasps and complaints, all of which were silenced by one alpha look. Liam’s eyes were bright gold, but returned to normal once it was clear the omegas were being obedient. 

“What’s happening?” Louis asked, leaning against the doorway to the bathroom. He’d clearly just woken up, his hair was sticking up on the left side and his blue eyes were bleary.

“The omegas were playing in the snow, dressed in the wrong clothes and nearly got hypothermia. Now they get to take a bath.”

“Ah, I see.”

The two watched the omegas slowly relax into the water, getting used to the heat. Emmie went as far as to duck her head underwater. Niall took to lounging against the side of the tub, his eyes at half mast, clearly falling asleep. Harry wasn’t much better off. The only coherent omega was Emmie, who was blowing bubbles into the bath water. It was odd, how easily entertained and sated omegas could sometimes be. 

Liam took Niall and dried him off while Louis took care of an equally pliant Harry. Emmie was content with doing it herself and dressing in fuzzy pajamas on her own. It took longer to get Harry and Niall dressed, simply because they were sleepy. Eventually they were settled on the bed next to Emmie, who kissed each of them on the cheek gently, before burrowing herself into Louis’ embrace when he laid down next to her. It was a good morning to be an omega.

By the time noon rolled around, the omegas were tired of laying in bed. They wanted to play in the snow.

“C’mon, please. We’ll be really good,” Harry begged. “I’ll bake cookies for dessert.”

Liam shook his head. “You guys nearly killed yourselves this morning. I’m not overly eager to let you back out again.”

“Alpha,” Harry was laying it on thick now. “You’ll be there this time, so there’s no way anything can go wrong. You’ll protect us, like always.” Niall and Emmie stood back and let Harry work his charms on the stubborn alpha.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No, not today. Maybe tomorrow, okay?” With that said, Liam ended the conversation by pointedly turning back to his work.

Quietly, the three filed out of the study. Making eye contact, Harry shook his head in disappointment. “I thought it would work.”

“Us, too, Haz,” Niall said, slinging his arm around Harry’s shoulders. “That’s what the other alphas are for.”

“You try this time, then. Since I did the talking with Liam.”

“Fair’s fair.”

Asking Louis didn’t go much better. “What?” he asked, distracted from the soccer game on the television. “Shouldn’t you be asking Liam?”

Niall shuffled his feet, unsure of how well they thought this out. The alphas always tended to be on the same page. “Liam said no, so we decided to ask you.”

Louis looked away from the TV long enough to give the omegas a scolding look. “If Liam said no, then I’m with him. He’s the one that took all those health classes on omegas back in school.” It seemed as if he was about to elaborate, but he cut himself off, cheering when a goal was made. The omegas retreated back into the bedroom to rethink their game plan.

“They’re too in sync,” Emmie said, looking down at the sheet of paper they’d dedicated for writing down their battle tactics. “Zayn will react the same way as Louis. We’re gonna have to wait until tomorrow.”

“But the snow might be gone by tomorrow,” Harry pointed out, pouting. “What if it melts, and we can’t play in it? What if it never snows again?” The room was silent as the omegas went through the possibility of this being the only snow fall of the year. 

“Let’s check the weather, then,” Niall suggested. “Maybe it will snow again tonight.”

Whipping out his phone, Harry quickly pulled up the weather app. “It says it’s supposed to be 21 degrees celsius tomorrow.”

“You’re kidding!” Crowding in on Harry, Niall and Emmie saw the sun hidden in the clouds for tomorrow, and 21 degrees celsius in bold.

Emmie threw her hands in the air. “We’re doomed!”

“No, we just need to come up with a plan. They can’t be angry with us if they don’t know we were outside, right?”

Niall agreed with Harry. “Yeah, we just need to sneak out to somewhere they won’t see us without getting caught.”

“They’ll get angry, though, won’t they? Liam specifically said to wait until tomorrow, and then Louis-”

“Waiting until tomorrow won’t work if there’s no snow, Ems. We have to do this. Now or never,” Harry said, already getting up and heading to the closet to get dressed in warmer clothes. Niall mimicked him.

The girl omega stayed where she was, curled up on the bed. “I don’t know, guys. I really don’t like getting in trouble.”

“Can’t get in trouble if they don’t know what we did. All we have to do is be careful,” Harry explained, while sorting through sweaters.

“Alphas have a really good sense of smell, right? What if they smell that we’ve been outside?”

Niall shrugged it off. “You’re over thinking this, Emmie. We’re playing in the snow, not committing a murder.”

“Besides, you don’t have to come. Hold down the fort, if you’d like.”

That’s exactly what Emmie did, for all of three minutes. What would happen if they got hurt, or injured, with no one to help them? Glancing over at the lumps under the covers of the bed, where Harry and Niall had put pillows to make it look like they were napping. It was freezing outside, and the snow was still falling heavily. The blame would be on her if they got hurt, and she hadn’t told the alphas where they’d gone. Then again, it was just snow. Snow wasn’t that dangerous. Maybe she should tell the alphas. But then Harry and Niall would be angry, they really wanted to play outside. The snow was supposed to melt tomorrow, too. They said they’d be back in an hour, if they weren’t back by then she would tell the alphas. Hoping to distract herself, Emmie went to the kitchen to stress bake.

She was just finishing the brownie batter when Zayn sat down at the kitchen counter. Had he always watched her while she cooked, or was she just paranoid? Even worse, maybe he knew that the boys were gone and was waiting for her to crack under the pressure. It might be better to just tell him, if he already knew. If he didn’t know and she told him, that would be betraying the other two omegas. Was it betrayal if it was for their own good? Hopefully, she wouldn’t get in trouble for not telling her alphas. It’s just that Harry and Niall had been so excited to go out, she couldn’t just crush their fun like that. They were kind of close to the house, anyway. It should be okay. The alphas would understand, they just wanted to enjoy the snow while it lasted. Liam had said no, though. Louis agreed with Liam, and Zayn would do the same. 

“Hey.” Emmie startled at Zayn’s voice, and looked up to find him next to her. “You okay? You’ve been staring into that bowl for the last couple minutes. You’re not getting sick again, are you?” He didn’t know. Slight panic washed over Emmie. Now if she let anything slip it would be all her fault. 

“Nothing,” she squeaked. Wrong answer. Wrong answer! “No, I mean. Nothing’s wrong, just spacing out, yeah.”

“Are you sure?” Zayn didn’t look so convinced.

“Sure as a forest fire.”

“Right.”

Emmie coughed. “Yeah.”

Zayn ran a hand over her hair, gently. Tension swept out of the omega at the contact. Purring started to rise from her chest. “So, you’re not going to tell me what’s wrong?”

The girl was so relaxed she just answered automatically. “No.” 

The alpha sighed heavily, before cupping Emmie’s face in his hands. “I’m doing this because I’m worried about you, okay?” Zayn’s eyes glowed golden, and he looked into her eyes. With an alpha command he said, “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Unable to resist the command, Emmie confessed everything. “Niall and Harry snuck out to play in the snow because Harry’s weather app said it was going to melt tomorrow.”

Shockingly, Zayn didn’t look surprised. “And where are they playing?”

“Just around the corner of the street. By the stop sign.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I didn’t want to get them in trouble.”

Eyes fading back to their normal brown, the alpha supported Emmie as she fell against him. Disorientation was normal after alpha commands. Placing the bowl she’d been holding on the counter, Zayn picked her up and carried her to the living room. Louis was relaxing on the couch, scrolling through his phone. 

Placing Emmie on Louis’ lap, Zayn went to grab his coat and get Liam. “Watch her, will you? She just got out of a command.”

“What, a command? Zayn, you know that can be-”

“Harry and Niall snuck outside to play in the snow. Emmie was acting really off, and I didn’t want a repeat of the dinner incident. When I used her it on her, and told her to tell me what was wrong, she told me where Harry and Niall were.”

Liam and Zayn left a minute later to drag Niall and Harry back to the house. Louis just sighed, and set about easing their smallest omega back into coherency. 

Emmie nuzzled into the oldest alpha, humming lazily. Firm warmth laid beneath her, and arms wrapped around her gently. Louis’ scent washed over her, the slight spice of cinnamon leading her back to the real world. Clumsily shuffling to sit up, she found herself in Louis’ embrace as the events that had just transpired came back to her, one by one. 

“Sorry, alpha,” she whispered. 

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“Didn’t want to break my promise and get them in trouble.”

Interested, Louis examined Emmie’s expression. “You made a promise?”

Frowning, she nodded. “Yeah, I told ‘em I wouldn’t tell or anything. They said they’d only be gone for an hour so I agreed to promise them.”

It was starting to click into place. “Did you want to tell us?”

Eyes filling with tears, Emmie nodded, and ducked her head into the crook of Louis’ neck. “Scared they would get hurt, but I promised.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you for your honesty, love.”

#####

Niall couldn’t help glancing in the direction of the house every couple minutes. “Are you sure it was okay to make Emmie promise that? You know how obedient she is. I feel bad.”

“It’s not like we forced her. She just has to not say anything.” Harry plopped the snow he’d rolled onto the snowman for its head, before setting about making another one. 

“I know. She just looked so guilty, is all.”

“Don’t worry, Ni. We’ll get back and no one will know the difference!”

A deep rumble sounded behind them. “Who won’t know the difference?”

Whipping around fast enough to slip in the snow, the omegas stumbled from shock. Two of their alphas stood before them with blank expressions. Without another word, the alphas turned and headed back down the sidewalk for home. Sharing a look of suspense with each other, the omegas followed after them. Right after their winter gear was taken off, Harry and Niall were made to stand in front of Zayn, Louis, and Liam. Emmie was nowhere in sight.

Harry couldn’t help but ask, “Where’s Emmie?”

“Resting from the alpha command. I was worried she was hiding being sick again.” Zayn looked pointedly at the two bashful omegas. “But it turned out to be something else entirely.”

“We only wanted to play in the snow because it was going to be 21 degrees celsius tomorrow,” Niall said, grasping for any kind of excuse he could.

Liam spoke up for the first time in since retrieving the omegas. “And what was the location setting?”

Blinking, Harry pulled out his phone to check and found that it was set for LA. “Oh…”

“Fifteen spanks each.” Neither omega protested.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“Wake up, sleepy heads!” Louis called, shaking the bundle of omegas awake. 

Niall was the first to respond, throwing his arm out in a weak attempt to deter his alpha. “Too early,” he grumbled.

“I guess our three, little omegas don’t want to go to the park today,” Louis sighed.

Liam played along. “But it snowed ten centimeters last night. I guess they must be tired.”

The three omegas scrambled to get out of bed, racing each other to the bedroom window.

“I knew it was going to snow last night. I told you, guys!” Emmie stated proudly.

“I knew it was going to snow,” Harry protested.

“Actually,” Niall said, “you kept saying that wasn’t supposed to snow for another few days.”

Harry sniffed, and looked away. “I don’t trust weather apps anymore.”

“But the weather app was right, and so was I!” Emmie clapped her hands together before moving to get dressed.

“It lied to me before. I have trust issues now.”

“You guys had it on the wrong setting, Hazza. It hardy lied to you,” Zayn said, ruffling the omegas hair.

The alphas then paired off with an omega each. Clearly their submissives had trouble figuring out what the proper clothes to wear outside in below freezing temperature. By the time they were all ready to go the omegas were bouncing and overheating at the same time. 

“Do you wanna build a snowman?” Harry sang to Louis, pulling the alpha behind him towards the clearing of snow that was undisturbed, but not for long. The day consisted of snowball fights and building mini legions of snowmen. Rolling down the big, park hill was done instead of sledding, as they didn’t have any sleds. Somehow it transformed into an all out tack-war, Omegas versus Alphas.

“Get down, Mr. President!” Emmie yelled, pushing Niall out of the way of an oncoming Liam. “We have to get you to safety.”

“What about the country? The people?” Niall asked, playing along as they made a quick retreat. Their running was interrupted by Harry.

“Life alert! Help, I have fallen and I can’t get up.” Harry was being pinned in the snow by Louis as Zayn sat off to the side laughing. Niall and Emmie veered off course from the tree line (where their base was set up) to save Harry. Emmie tackled Louis off of him, spurring Zayn to more laughter as Niall dragged his fallen comrade away.

“I’ve got you now, criminal. You won’t get away with this monstrosity.” Grabbing his wrists, she pinned them to the snow above his head, and he let her. 

“Oh, really? And how are you going to stop me, copper?”

Smirking down proudly at her alpha, Emmie proclaimed, “I already have. I’ve caught you.”

Louis raised his eyebrow. “Is it me that’s been caught-” he flipped them over so he was the one on top, holding Emmie hostage, “Or you? I know your weakness.”

The girl scoffed. “I have no weaknesses.”

“Truly?” Louis leaned in closer. Awareness washed over Emmie like a tidal wave. She could feel the press of his weight over her and could smell the mint in his breath.

“Y-yeah.”

Humming, Louis pressed his cold nose into the scent gland on Emmie’s neck. Jumping slightly at the temperature shock, the cool was immediately soothed by the press of something soft and warm. Breath leaving her lungs all at once, Emmie shivered from the feel of lips ghosting up to her pulse point. Louis paused there, his breath warm and tantalizing. The moment hung between them, snowflakes falling quietly in their bubble. Then, a small nip was bestowed on her fluttering pulse. A quiet noise passed her lips without consent. Louis then rolled off of her, leaving Emmie dazed and chilled as cold air replaced where his body heat had been. Staring up at the cloudy, winter sky, she blinked before sitting up. Louis was acting as if nothing had happened, helping Zayn chase down Niall and Harry. 

“You good?” Liam asked, kneeling down next to her. Had he seen it? Was it bad that Emmie had enjoyed it? “We’ve been holding back on that sort of affection for a while, so I wanted to check and make sure that you’re okay with it.”

“I liked it,” Emmie responded dumbly. Liam smiled brightly at her.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't like, don't read!
> 
> But, if you do like, show it in the only way we know how; clicking things! Click the Kudos if you're so inclined, if not, then move along as if you've never seen this message.
> 
> I do not own anything but my OFC!!!! Please, don't sue me.


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